Week 29

(Week 23 Caserta)

Last District Meeting with Sorella Robertson

District at Sorella Robertson funeral (thank goodness for Relief Society Room tablecloths and flowers)

World Wide Mission Conference  Can you spy Sorella Nelson?

Cari tutti!!!! Another wonderful wonderful week in the Italy Rome Mission! Started off the week with the funnest P-day in the books! POMPEII with the Anziani from Napoli! Sooo fun! Running around Pompeii and laughing our heads off. We ended the day with some wonderful visits and then right before bed we received a phone call from our zone leaders that our Caserta Anziani didn't squillo (when we call and hang up to let our leaders know we are safe and home). We were freaking out!!!! Anziano Borden is literally the most responsible person and was an AP so we were thinking the worst happened! Long story short we made a million phone calls, eventually Denis and Daniel (some members) went to their apartment and found out their phone just wasn't working properly. Sorry for all the times you waited up till midnight for me mom! I understand the lack of sleep and worries now!

GianFranco. He is stillllll smoking. We had a really really great lesson on repentance and we see he has a desire to change, but we have kinda hit a wall with the smoking... We are super super grateful he continually is coming to church and is always happy to meet with us. Today I was walking down the road we saw him smoking. I yelled out his name and he looked over at us with the most sheepish smile. He immediately dropped his cigarette and carried on. Maybe we just need to stalk him throughout the day...?

Ornella! She came to church!!! Sadly she came right after the sacrament and missed the first talk, BUT we were happy to have her there! She is progressing super well, La Parola di Sagezza is coming up next so we are hoping helping her to stop smoking will be easier than GianFranco.

Quick story: Maria Russo is a less active woman who cries and cries every time we visit her. Before we went into her home this week we agreed to keep talking about happy things and nothing sad. We had her laughing and making jokes with us up until right before the closing prayer I say "siamo così contente di vederti felice!" Haha wrong move... She yells "it's not true!!!! I'm not happy!!!" And breaks down and sobs! WE WERE SO CLOSE! Good visit with Maria and now we know not to mention that she is happy...

THE MISSIONARY CONFERENCE!!! Oh my gosh this was the best!!! All the missionaries in the world coming together for training! So happy to be part of it! Our leaders are soooo inspired and I really took a lot away from the conference. Something I loved was the training on how to recieve referrals. Referrals have been basically non existent during my mission but this week we had two! Asking and being persistent for referrals really pays off!

Saturday morning we swung by a less active woman Antonietta who has the most wonderful family! Sara about 11, Daniele a 7 year old boy and little Roberta who is the cutest 2 year old girl. We talked about how we as families can remember Jesus Christ, especially on Sunday (hint hint, get to church). It's the saddest because Sara the oldest daughter wants to come to church so badly so we hope Antonietta now understands the importance of coming.

We ended Saturday with the family of Gaetana. Oh. My. Gosh. I have never felt so at home here in Italy! She has a 23 year old son, 11 year old daughter and 7 year old daughter. Gaetana and her husband are so wonderful and we LOVE this family. Her husband had lost his job and the youngest girl had been in the hospital this last week, so they have had it pretty rough... We all sat together as I showed the two girls pictures of Carli building a snowman (They loved her)! The oldest son speaks English pretty well so we spoke a little with him. We ended our little time with them with the short film "Grazie a Lui" and shared that because of Him we can have these new beginnings and we don't have to dwell on the past. We wished we hadn't. We had the most perfect opportunity to share with this entire family the message of the restoration or how their family could be eternal and we didn't!!! erg! We are praying for another opportunity to share the wonderful message with the family! This week we are going to go for it! Lesson: don't be afraid to share the message!

I will end this random email with the best story of the week!

Sorella Roberston and I were sitting on the train coming back to Caserta when all of the sudden 7 ragazzi (Italian teenage boys) come onto the train and sit a little ways away from us. Sorella Robertson and I are so tired of creepy men and annoying boys hitting on us all the time so we were thinking of what to do if they tried to flirt with us. We were thinking of either teaching the law of chastity or pretending like we don't speak Italian. Sure enough, all 7, ragazzi come over to speak to us. Sorella Roberston explains that we are missionaries and they proceed to tell her how beautiful she is and "Robertson è carina" (cute). They are being so creepy and at this point I haven't said a word. They then turn to me and ask what my name is. I reply "Beep Boop". I continue speaking gibberish and Sorella Roberston is DYING of laughter and I'm trying not to laugh as much as I want. I think we confused all 7 of them pretty well because they left us alone after that. 

Well it is rather cold here in Caserta. Sorella Robertson leaves for home this next week and I'm trying not to stress out if I will be blown out of Caserta or what will happen. I'm so so grateful everyday to be a missionary. Sometimes at night as we walk home we hear an accordian playing Italian music or see silly old men smoking their cigars together in their little suits and leather shoes and I just thank my Heavenly Father for these wonderful people, this wonderful language, but especially that I get to help these people learn more about our wonderful Savior.

I miss and love you all soooo much!!!

Don't forget to ask for help... Ponderize scripture: 1 Nephi 15:8

VVB!

Sorella Carrie Nelson

Wore my boots completely out....

Spying on Sorella Robertson hahahaha......

Foster, Anita, and Kingsley!!

Week 28

(Week 22 Caserta)

I totally took each and everyone of these pictures! Most beautiful day
searching for less actives. Thank goodness the streets were beautiful
because we walked forever!!! Yes, I timed the car perfectly... Haha

Hair trim courtesy of Sorella Robertson

Try finding your way on a map like this 

Melting snowman from home....adds a little humor each day.

180......

La Mia Famiglia!!!!!
Complete 180 turn around here in the wonderful city of Caserta! Where last
week was rough, tiring, and just hard work this week was full of
miracles, silly moments and lo Spirito Santo! 

We started our week off with Lucia. We called her in the morning and
she said "Dove sei? Ti aspetto a piazza Margherita." And then she just
hangs up! We dashed out of the house asking people where piazza
Margherita is and somehow we found her! We wanted to take her into the
church and have a lesson but... She needed her morning coffee so she
could walk the 7 minute distance. Haha comunque, we got her into
church and had a wonderful lesson. 

We saw her again later in the week
and had to be sooo Bold with her! She believes that Christ doesn't
understand her and she can't receive answers to her prayers. Her
favorite thing to say is "I knock but He doesn't respond to me" over
and over and over! 

She has a 45+- daughter who is mentally handicapped
from when she was 18 and Lucia has really been upset over that. We
were really excited when she came to church on Sunday! The Bryan
couple missionaries were back and were able to give her a ride to
church! During the sacrament hymn Where can I turn for peace, "who who
can understand, He only one". Lucia said "non e vero quello!" Haha
meaning that's not true. She kills me and I love her so much. 

GianFranco will not be baptized until at least March so we are
focusing on helping him stop smoking until he is off of probation. He
is so awesome and just has the biggest desire to start fresh. 

ORNELLA!!! She is this week's miracle! After English course we were
about to do a lesson with GianFranco and member friend Rory and
Ornella popped in to meet us. The Anziani had invited her to English
Course on the street and they introduced her to us. We invited her to
stay for our spiritual thought with GianFranco. Her eyes were sooo big
the entire time! After we all ate the brownies we made, and GianFranco
and Rory left, we got to know her a little better. 

She is 30 and LOVES
to sing and loves America. She offered us a ride home but what was
hilarious is right before we got in her car she said, "dopo un dolce,
ci vuole una sigaretta." Meaning (after something sweet, a cigarette
is needed). No worries, Word of Wisdom will come soon . We saw her
again the next day and we did my favorite lesson (La Restaurazione)
and she loved loved loved it! She wants to be baptized and the whole
shabang! 

Coolest thing about Ornella is that she can already recognize
the spirit. During and after our lessons we have had with her she
talks about how she hasn't ever felt like this and that she hates
leaving because she feels so good. She is soooo cool!!!! 

Here are a couple great stories from the week

Gaetana (another investigator) has a daughter who was super sick and
was in the hospital. We went during pranzo to pay a visit and were
able to teach Gaetana, her daughter and husband and other patients and
mothers who were also in the room! Hospitals are the place to do
finding!

Side note... Hospitals here are soooo sketchy! The hallways are dark,
everywhere smells like smoke, and anyone can go anywhere. We didn't
check in or anything! 

Caserta had a massive water leak so a huge section of the city was
without water for the whole day! Guess who's apartment was in that
section? Haha ours. We had done an awesome run and workout and came
inside to discover we had no water. We considered trying to wash our
hair in the bidae toilet since there was a small stream of water or
just not showering... We decided to head to the church and see what
the situation was there. We packed all our clothes and shower gear and
hurried to chiesa. The water worked there! We found a custodial shower
type of thing in the men's bathroom, gave it a quick cleaning and made
do. Desperate times call for desperate measures! 

I've learned in the
mission pride can't exist. You do whatever you need to. We were just
so grateful we were nice and clean and treated ourselves to a
delicious cornetto and hot chocolate. :) 

I loved doing finding this week!!! We found ourselves with some extra
time between lessons and such so we would either invite people to
English course or ask them if they had ever seen our name tag before
and start a gospel conversation. It was so much fun!!! We taught a man
the restoration while he was copying something for us, and others who
were just out for a stroll. 

Something I will never get used to people touching me ALL THE TIME!!!
Don't get me wrong, I love it but sometimes... Sooo many kisses on
cheeks, men always making a handshake a little too long, women rubbing
my arms, others giving hug after hug after hug! I have become a much
more touchy person during these 6 months but I wonder if I will ever
reach the Italian level... 

Wow, Heavenly Father loves us sooo much!!! I know that because I
changed my attitude from last week I was able to see all the blessings
that the Lord gives us. I am so so grateful for the Atonement and the
chance it gives us to start over every single day. Nothing brings as
much happiness as does the hope of the Atonement (gelato is close but
lasts about 3 minutes). Jesus Christ's love and sacrifice is a lot
more than three minutes of happiness. 

I have felt power from the
Atonement this week when I have had the courage to stop people on
streets and speak with them and be able to see the positive things in
the day instead of the negative. This gospel is just so true! I know I
have said it a thousand times but I just feel so blessed to be part of
this work! 

A dopo tutti! 

Vi voglio un sacco di bene! 

Sorella Nelson

P-day at Pompeii

At the royal palace.

Showering at the church.....

Week 27

(Week 21 Caserta)

Colossus, screamer, wicked, the mission.......‏

Whoever said a mission is a roller coaster of work and emotions was
spot on! I think this has probably been one of the biggest weeks full
of ups and downs of my life. I've smiled so big this week, been so
confused, laughed so much, been so grateful and cried so much from one
single phone call. BUT, I still love this wonderful wonderful work of
the Lord. I still have a testimony that Jesus is our Savior, I have
felt His kindness during this week. I know that this work is
progressing, I may not see any fruits, but it is hastening. 

We started our week off seeing GianFranco. As soon as he came into the
church he asked if we could talk about his baptism. Turns out he is on
house arrest for something he and his "brothers" (a.k.a. Mafia) did
years and years and years ago. He has completed his one year and has a
court trial on the eleventh to see if he is free. When we explained to
him that he cannot be baptized while on probation we decided to all
fast together. GianFranco is so changed and it makes it so sad that
choices we made years and years ago hold us back from our blessings. 

Later in the week we also found out he is still smoking!... GianFranco
still wants to stop but it will just take some time. 

Cool/sad story... Antonio a man we met outside his shop was reading
the restoration pamphlet as we peeked into his shop one night.
Literally made our day seeing him sitting there in his shop reading
his little heart out! We decided to "casually" ask him if he was able
to read the pamphlet in two days. Sooo we did! 

Basically Catholics
believe in a man named Padre Pio who suffered for a third of the
worlds sins, the Madonna (Mary) and Gesù did the other two thirds. Our
conversation with Antonio ended with "well if you don't believe in
Padre Pio, I won't believe in your Joseph Smith". Well, some people
are just not ready for the gospel. We just pray that someone else will
be able to give him another chance. Awesome guy though with a sick
suit store. 

We went to Battipaglia for a scambio (exchange) with our STL and her
companion. Strangest scambio I have ever done! The evening part I was
with our STL Sorella DeFranchi (she is French) and she was just
throwing up the whole evening. On the bright side I was able to read
her talks in Italian and get her help with new vocabulary so that was
great! 

In the morning all four of us with the Anziani did a Mostra in
the big centro. I have never been so frustrated with missionaries!
Sorella Robertson and I were trying sooooo hard to talk to everyone
who passed by while the actual Battipaglia missionaries were just
making jokes the whole time! 

Anywho, it was beautiful weather, I met
some adorable people, I got to spend time with Sorella Rackham
(Sorella Defranchis comp who is one transfer older than me) and I love
her so much! It was great! 

The biggest thing I struggled with this week wasn't rejection or flaky
members or investigators but the Anziani. I've been in Caserta for
four transfers now while this is their first. I've been trying to work
so hard with all sorts of people and am finally seeing some success.
They are wanting to change how we do English course and work with the
ward. They are now setting up appointments with people we are trying
to work with, they gave one named Jerry a baptism date. I felt so much
hate and anger and frustration when they called to "apologize" if they
had taken people we were trying to work with. 

I've really had to come
down and humble myself. Something that really helped me was in my
study this morning I read Through God's Eyes by: Elder Dale G.
Renlund. "Something wonderful happens in a missionary’s service when
he or she realizes that the calling is not about him or her; rather,
it is about the Lord, His work, and Heavenly Father’s children." It
doesn't matter if I met these people first. It doesn't matter that I
won't be able to teach them. It really doesn't even matter who wanted
to talk to them first about the gospel. This is the Lord's work. We
are all His children. This is not about me or how much something
frustrates me or makes me happy. It's about who that person needed to
be taught by. It only matters that these people are making covenants
and headed back home. 

I've been really frustrated with other
missionaries this week but I realize I'm no better than any of them. I
have my own faults, I'm not 100% obedient. I try, and I mess up. I try
and sometimes succeed. ITS ALL JUST SO WORTH IT!!! I'm so lucky to be
a missionary in Italy doing the Lord's work! 

I'm so sorry if this email sounds just all depressing and not
uplifting at all!!! I promise I still love being a missionary and I'm
not giving up! There is always a storm before the calm! Satan knows
people are ready, he is just making me frustrated so I can't find
them! Don't worry, I won't let him win!  

Ponderize scripture
Moroni 7:45

VVB
Sorella Carrie Nelson

We look like stateside sisters with our bikes we borrowed!!!

Beautiful sea side coast!!!
Hashtag windy so don't look at my hair....

Week 26

(Week 20 Caserta)

6 months! What!?!? Time is going too fast -  it's freaking me out!

I'll tell about Tuesday in some detail. This was probably the best day I have had in these past six months...

Woke up, ran, ate, got ready, studied, left the apartment. This man Antonio popped out of his shop and stopped us as we were walking. He has the coolest Italian suit/tie store and he invited us in. We explained that we are missionaries and what we do here in Italy. He showed us all his pictures of Jesus and we had an awesome gospel conversation. He insisted he buy us a coffee so we let him buy us some water. We locked up his shop and walked to the bar. He had a coffee and we had little plastic cups of water. We introduced the Restoration and asked him to read it. We then scurried to church to see GianFranco.

"Che cosa parleremmo oggi?" Gian Franco asks what we will talk about today... SMOKING! GianFranco told us straight up he has a problem with smoking and wants to stop. He wanted a priesthood blessing and so thank goodness we have awesome Anziani! GianFranco said the closing prayer and specifically asked for help to stop smoking! So far he has only smoked one cigarette!!!!!!!! 

Ten minutes after GianFranco we met withLucia, she brought her money to go to the young single adult conference in Verona. We have only taught her two of the actual lessons and she is paying 190 euro to go to this conference! I was so shocked that she wanted to go to the conference so badly! We taught her the word of wisdom and law of chastity to help her know what is expected at the conference but also as members of the church. She is soooo cool!!! She loved the conference and will hopefully have a baptism date this week!

We returned home for pranzo and lingua and headed back out! We went to see Gaetana at her store. She has been really upset with taking care of the holidays, her husband lost his job, taking care of her home so instead of the fabulous lesson we had planned we shared the Mormon message mountains to climb. She loved it!  The spirit was there and she felt at peace and I was glad we changed our lesson.

Two people cancelled on us so we were doing some street finding. We were walking in front of the massive royal palace and I just had the most wonderful feeling of gratitude. I'm so grateful for our awesome investigators, grateful for our ward, grateful for the wonderful people we taught that day and the people the Lord had put in our path. I was overwhelmed with beautiful Italy and the wonderful culture and just soooo happy!!! 

To top the day off... We decided to try to see a neighbor we had gifted a Book of Mormon to. We ended up teaching the entire restoration and it was sooooo powerful!!! I have never taught the beautiful restoration as many times as I have this week, and I have looooved teaching it! Heavenly Father was soooo kind to us this day!!! 

Later in the week... Sweet Vini taught me how to make tuna mayonnaise, we got to teach the restoration to her ENTIRE family, our Lucia (senior) still repeats everything I say as I pray and interrupts to tell us who else to pray for. Haha we love her. I ate Fufu (an African dish) with a wonderful couple. It was super nasty, basically bread dough that you dip into a soup. You don't use any utensils and don't chew. I was grateful for the meal and the kindness but I hope to never eat it again...

NEW YEARS!!! Sooooo many fireworks!!!!  In Italy everyone starts eating their New Year's Eve meal around 9 and it is ONLY FISH! The smell of fish in the streets and being cooked was so dang strong as we were walking home at night! We gave ourselves an early curfew because there were so many crazy people out on New Year's Eve! Ex... Man commanding us to pray, a man with a cat standing on his backpack as he walked, strange people asking where we were going, haha my reply was "non lo so" (I don't know). Sometimes I'm really bright. Anywho, it was a crazy time and there were soooo many fireworks during the night! I didn't hear them but Sorella Robertson did so she woke me up so we could watch them at midnight together. We had the best view ever! Some literally sound like bombs! We spent New Years Day doing our deep cleaning for our apartment.

Gospel is so so true and I have learned how important the Priesthood really is this week. Without the Priesthood, nothing would be able to be done in our church. So many Italians believe that their Saints and Pope and Padre Pio have the Priesthood but we are here to help them understand the truth! The gospel is so simple and beautiful! We are so LUCKY! I love love love Italy, the people, the food, the language, the gospel and am feeling so happy I still have a year to go!

Ponderize Ephesians 4:14

Love Sorella Nelson

Week 25

(Week 19 Caserta)

Cari amici!!!

I can't believe Christmas was here and has already gone! What a fast week it was. I feel like I say it every week that everything is just super great, I love Caserta, and my dear British companion the one and only Sorella Robertson.  She has pushed me to be better than ever and I'm so grateful. The work in Caserta has never been better and I know it's because she believes we can always see one more person or get one more investigator. She is "dying" really really well. Just to let you know that I'm not lying and everything really is superb, here are some awesome stories from this week...

Our Stake President called us this week to open the church so he could meet with the police. Apparently because of all the crazy stuff happening in Europe it's pretty common for the police to do weird checks and what not. Comunque, President Dinucaci says, "I'm not going to answer their questions now so if they take me call your President to try to call my wife." Sorella Robertson and I were trying not to freak out the entire time they were here, but President came back out and says with a little smile, "They didn't take me." 

The best part of this experience was while we were doing our language study inside, he had seen a woman looking at the English Course information down below and he told us to go talk to her. Of course we stopped everything, ran down the stairs and found the woman. Long story short, we have another investigator named Lucia who is about 70. 

This woman (Lucia senior) is sooooo hard to teach! We went to her house the day right after we met and once again and she now knows how to pray and who Heavenly Father is, and basically she says if she knows it's true she will be baptized. We are taking it really slow with her to make sure she understands. The last time we taught her, her husband, son and son's friend all came in. We were thinking "this is awesome, hashtag an eternal family plus friend", but instead, they asked us all sorts of questions about what we do as missionaries and what we can and can't do. Since they wouldn't really give us a chance to speak, they think we can't eat lemons because we wouldn't drink their alcoholic lemon drink. Awesome family, and Lucia really wants to come to church, but this will definitely push me to be more bold.

Our other investigators, especially Lucia (young one) and GianFranco are stellar! Lucia is basically fellow-shipping herself when she comes to church and got an interview with our bishop to go to a youth conference up in northern Italy! GianFranco now has a baptism date and the next step is helping him to stop smoking! Work is really really killer right now!

Now to the CHRISTMAS EVENTS! Italians start eating around 10 o'clock at night and finish around 1 in the morning so unfortunately we had to turn down our Italian friend invites so Christmas Eve was just like an American Christmas! 

We spent the night with the Anziani and an American family on the military base, decorating cookies, drinking eggnog, reading Christmas books, opening gifts (missionaries received "Navy" hoodies), and reading the Bible Christmas Story. It was so wonderful and I'll always be grateful to the Salvitti family for making me feel right at home. 

Christmas day was spent sleeping in one hour (permission from President), watching Inside Out, going to lunch with the Anziani and our Ward Mission Leader Bini, and his wife Astrid who are awesome! They gave us missionaries American chips, cookies, and other american snacks. Haha the best! 

Christmas dinner with Bini and Astrid

Our adorable little Albero
Christmas Day photoshoot

Best part of Christmas was definitely SKYPE! I literally couldn't believe I was talking to my family and seeing them in actual time! As soon as Dad answered the call and everyone started popping into view, Carli, Kendra, Kirsten, Kadia and then my dear Mom, I was just so overwhelmed and so happy to be seeing the six faces I love most in the world! Nothing beats family! Not even treasured American food!

Day after Christmas we watched Despicable ME. After that, we went back to work! Teaching the Gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ! It was so great to celebrate the season, but in all honesty it was nice getting back into our routine of teaching. Nothing beats seeing others progress and learn. Seeing people I love in church and having this unique opportunity to be here with them is the greatest gift.

ELDER OAKS in ROME!!! Sunday Elder Oaks was in Rome with his wife and decided spontaneously to have a quick conference with the missionaries in the mission! Lucky missionaries who are in Rome we able to be right with him, but the others of us throughout the mission watched and listened through a webcam. HE IS AN APOSTLE! His testimony, his countenance (even over a webcam) and his message witnessed to me he is really an apostle of the Lord.

He talked a ton about the temple that seems like it will never be finished. He instructed us that we will never have a temple here in Rome until there are people to fill it and work in it. 

I have a new perspective on missionary work. Instead of just a perspective of bringing people to baptism it is more focused on helping them get to the temple. It was the best experience to have Elder Oaks and his wife with us. 

Gospel is true everyone! I love each and everyone of you and pray for your success in life! Thanks for all the testimonies you share and Christmas wishes!

Vi voglio bene!

Sorella Carrie Nelson

Our Elf Zilly from home came all the way to Italy to check up on me!!

Christmas Day Photoshoot with Sorella Robertson

Our adorable little albero.